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For at least the sixth time, the most recent procurement for offshore wind has been delayed.

State officials said Thursday — two days after what had been the deadline for contracts to be executed with the projects chosen nearly two years ago — that the contract completion milestone has now been bumped to Jan. 29, 2027, putting the whole process about two and a half years behind schedule.

“Massachusetts is pursuing an all-of-the-above approach to energy, which includes offshore wind. The uncertainty created by the changing federal landscape remains challenging as the utilities and developers work to finalize contracts,” said Lauren Diggin, spokesperson for the Department of Energy Resources.

Massachusetts selected 2,678 megawatts of offshore wind power spread across three projects in September 2024, kicking off contract talks that are expected to result in higher prices for power than past projects. During the repeated delays, one of the selected projects has removed itself from consideration and another raised the potential for a multi-year delay.

The evaluation team involved in the procurement process includes the Department of Energy Resources, National Grid, Eversource and Unitil. After the contracts are executed, the procurement timeline generally allows for about a month before they must be submitted to the Department of Public Utilities for review, at which point the price of the power is expected to become known.

Gov. Maura Healey last week joined labor leaders, union workers and offshore wind industry representatives in New Bedford to cheer the completion of the Vineyard Wind 1 project, the first offshore wind farm selected to serve Massachusetts under a 2016 clean energy law and still the only one on the state’s horizon.

There, days before the previous June 30 deadline, energy officials said talks remained ongoing for the contract negotiations.  

State officials once said Massachusetts needed to be bringing about 1 gigawatt of new offshore wind power online each year in the 2030s to meet its binding decarbonization targets, but Vineyard Wind 1 is likely to remain the only offshore development providing power to the state until at least the start of that decade.

14 replies on “Offshore Wind faces yet another delay”

  1. Time to go SMR — small safe modular nuclear reactors:

    In June 2023, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) permitted SouthCoast Wind (formerly Mayflower Wind) to withdraw from signed long-term energy contracts.
    Since 2023, SouthCoast Wind has repeatedly (4X) failed to secure Power Purchase Agreements. The most recent contract negotiations were due June 30, 2026?
    Analysts suggest that there may be no more offshore wind projects in Massachusetts this decade due to changing federal policies and market conditions.
    Note # Residential wind failed, then onshore wind failed, now offshore wind is failing.

      1. Wind is 2% of China’s energy
        They manufacture their own turbines..we have to import them…wind is too expensive
        and unreliable

  2. I predicted this. Healey would never let the cost of this power to be known before the election.

  3. How convenient to blame trump even though it’s been delayed 6 times going back years…the delays are due to the high inflation and poor payback which goes back well into biden regime…

  4. By now the majority of Massachusetts residents know, Offshore Wind is a failure, a very costly and expensive electricity source, and will do nothing to help lower our utility bills.

  6. Wind is the cheapest form of electrical generation per kWh and one of the fastest to bring on line when not constantly set back by oil company front groups pretending to be green grassroots organizations. See Brown et al. Wind does not get blockaded in Hormuz nor is it dependent on geopolitical forces of supply chain failures. It’s only real downfall…is that it is so cheap that it is hard to make a profit from. and that scares a lot of corporations ande big money investors…but it’s great for the rest of us.

  7. Your welcome to your opinion, but many other views continue to state the total opposite (Wind & Solar with backup are the most expensive forms of electric power), and playing political cards does nothing to make your case. Our state’s energy needs are too great and we need a more balanced approach of Fossil Fuels, Nuclear, Geothermal, Hydro, Solar, Wind, and other new technologies to provide energy at affordable costs for all our residents that live in our cities and towns in Massachusetts.

    1. Which view is Right?
      Our State has no Fossil Fuels, Nuclear, or Geothermal.
      What is the new technology?

      As of July 2026, there are no operating nuclear power plants in Massachusetts. The last remaining plant, the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, permanently shut down in May 2019. The facility is currently undergoing a years-long decommissioning process managed by Holtec International.

      Massachusetts does not have utility-scale geothermal power plants that generate electricity, as the state lacks the active volcanic activity and high-temperature deep underground reservoirs needed for traditional geothermal electricity generation.

  8. Everyone has had enough of the pros and cons of offshore wind. The majority of utility customers say offshore wind has made their utility bills skyrocket and will not lower costs in the future.

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